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Sterling has fallen sharply against the dollar as yet more bad economic data points towards a prolonged recession and further interest rate cuts. The pound was down 5.2 cents to $1.486, its largest one day fall in percentage terms since sterling crashed out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) in 1992. Sharp falls in the FTSE 100 index - down 5.2% on Monday - also served to undermine the currency. The pound was also down 3.5 cents against the euro, at 0.851 pounds. The poor economic data increases the likelihood that the Bank of England will cut interest rates on...

Gordon Brown is risking the "collapse of sterling" by borrowing his way out of economic turmoil, George Osborne has warned. The shadow chancellor, who breached political protocol by potentially talking down the pound, said the Prime Minister was pursuing a "scorched earth" policy with the intention of leaving the economy in ruins for a Tory government to inherit. In an interview with The Times, he said that people know instinctively that no government can borrow its way out of debt. Mr Osborne said that the resulting weight of debt will stifle recovery and jeopardise the future of the pound. "Sterling...

Sterling fell to a 12-year low against a basket of currencies on Tuesday and briefly fell to its lowest level against the euro since the single currency was introduced amid signs that foreign investors are deserting British assets. Since mid-September UK fixed income instruments, which consist of gilts, corporate bonds, shorter maturing bills, and mortgage securities have seen extremely heavy outflows, according to data from the Bank of New York Mellon. This has coincided with a sharp fall in sterling. According to the bank’s data, the net outflows of foreign investment from UK fixed income instruments seen over the past...

The pound could soon dive to barely more than a dollar and a half while gold prices plunge to $650, experts predicted yesterday amid fresh evidence that the commodity boom is ending and the dollar's resurgence is under way. Michael Saunders, head of European economics at Citigroup, said it "would not be a surprise" if sterling fell to levels last seen in 2002 - around $1.55 - despite sitting above two dollars as recently as mid-July. His comments came as sterling dropped to a fresh two-year low against the dollar, down over a cent at $1.8632. Its recent series...

The pound has suffered its worst run against the dollar since 1971, after falling in value for eleven consecutive days, on fears that the British economy is heading for recession. The plunging value of sterling came just two days after Mervyn King, the governor of Bank of England, said there was a "chill in the economic air" and a figures showed unemployment climbed in July by the most in almost 16 years.

Sterling made the headlines earlier this year by breaking though the $2 mark, but the currency is unlikely to reach such heady levels again in 2008 as the UK economy weakens, a clutch of the City's biggest banks now predicts. The sell-off, which started in foreign-exchange dealing floors last week, saw the pound end at $1.9807 and €1.4411 in a shortened trading day in London on Christmas Eve. According to HSBC the sell-off is just beginning and will see the pound slump to $1.80 by the end of next year. In one of the more bearish outlooks circulating around the...

The pound has slumped to its lowest level in 20 months, after a "shocking" raft of figures revealed how deeply reliant the UK has become on debt. Britain's current account has recorded its worst deficit since the late 1980s, making Britain's national balance sheet worse than the United States' for the first time since Nigel Lawson was Chancellor of the Exchequer. Sterling neared an all-time low against the euro Figures published by the Office for National Statistics caused a major sell-off of the pound, as experts warned that the UK currency would have to fall in value to bring the...

Sterling has pushed through the $2.10 barrier for the first time in 26 years after the Chinese government indicated it is prepared to diversify some of its huge foreign-exchange reserves. The pound stormed to as high as $2.1021 in trading in London, a level not seen since the early Thatcher era, and many currency experts now predict it go higher despite signs that the UK economy is slowing. The greenback's renewed weakness was sparked by comments from Cheng Siwei, vice chairman of China's National People's Congress, who suggested China will diversify some of its $1.33 trillion (£660bn) of foreign-exchange reserves....

Three private groups are now in the hunt to build U.S. 281 toll lanes, but two big foreign companies competing just a short while ago to build and lease a larger toll network here have dropped out. The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority board voted Wednesday to let all three teams submit plans to rebuild U.S. 281 north of Loop 1604 into a tollway with free access roads by 2012. It's the fledging agency's first project. "Goodness knows we have been two and a half years getting here," board member Bob Thompson said. "Maybe it's even more important to see the...

          Performing in purple underwear on MTV hardly seems like qualification for the toughest legal job on the planet: defending suspected terrorists at Guantánamo Bay. Then again, Kristine Huskey is not your typical lawyer       Gitmo's Girl  Gitmo's Girl Shortly before their first visit to Guantánamo Bay, on the day after Christmas in 2004, Kristine Huskey and her colleagues were told they could put together a special care package for their 12 Kuwaiti clients, none of whom they'd ever met. Stunned by this small act of grace — you can bring food down there? — the...

As Sen. John McCain gears up for a prospective presidential run in 2008, he's trying to put an ugly little incident behind him — one that makes him look like a flat-out hypocrite on his signature issue, campaign-finance reform. If members of the national media are anything more than lapdogs for the war-hero, "maverick" senator, they'll start asking some tough questions about a bogus little think tank in Alexandria, Va., called the Reform Institute. According to the inside-the-beltway paper Roll Call, McCain has stepped down as chairman of the Reform Institute, citing "negative publicity" from earlier this year when it...

TOKYO (Reuters) - The dollar held near a seven-month high against the euro on Friday on solid U.S. growth figures and expectations that France would say "Non" to an EU constitution in an upcoming referendum. The U.S. currency was also in sight of seven-month peaks struck against sterling and the Swiss franc on Thursday when it got a boost from revised data showing the U.S. economy expanded at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the first quarter. That compared with the government's previous estimate of 3.1 percent growth, though the revised figure was a tad lower than economists' forecasts....

LONDON (Reuters) - The dollar tumbled to a record low against the euro on Tuesday after a warning by euro zone officials on the euro's rise fell on deaf ears, with investors determined to dump the U.S. currency.In a joint statement late on Monday, the European Central Bank and euro zone finance ministers gave their starkest warning to date that they were unhappy with the euro's strength. In an echo of developments that preceded the ECB's maiden intervention in the currency markets of 2000, the statement said policymakers were monitoring the situation closely. But the dollar, under pressure from...

Sterling surged to a 12-year London closing high of $1.9077 to the dollar on Tuesday as the market scaled back expectations of UK interest rates cuts in 2005. The 0.8 per cent rise came as Bank of England governor Mervyn King and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development both dashed hopes of monetary easing next year, while economic data also attested to the continuing strength of the UK economy. Mr King told a Parliamentary committee that the UK economy will continue to enjoy strong growth and talked of “upside risks” to inflation. He also said it was not...

<p>Sterling Marlin is a Civil War buff who grew up on the battlefields around his home in Spring Hill --- where some of his ancestors fought --- and is an avid collector of books, relics and artifacts.</p> <p>Last fall Marlin met Jeb Stuart IV, descendant of the famed Confederate cavalryman, who volunteered to take him on a tour of battle sites around Richmond, Va.</p>

Britain's chancellor Gordon Brown has decided against adopting the euro in place of the venerable pound sterling, reports the BBC. The British government has not yet made an official announcement, but things are looking bad for the euro. England's imminent rejection of the euro may signal a turning point in the current war more decisive than the fall of Baghdad. Both the Axis of Evil and the Axis of Weasels have been plotting for years to replace the dollar with the euro as the world's new "petro" currency -- that is, the currency used by all countries to buy oil....

UK troops seize prisoners, suffer losses in Iraq By Paul Majendie LONDON, March 21 (Reuters) - Britain suffered its first losses of the Second Gulf War on Friday but took several hundred Iraqi prisoners and secured southern oil fields. "I am very encouraged by the start we have made," said Britain's defence chief Michael Boyce. "It is very early days but I have to say the coalition progress so far has been promising." But Boyce and Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon were in sombre mood as they paid tribute to eight British soldiers and four U.S airmen killed in a helicopter...